What do you think about TxDOT’s plans to update State Highway 183 and portions of 114 and Loop 12, adding several toll lanes like those being installed on 635?

Mike Voirin, Irving: There has been a great need to update the 114 and 183 corridors through Irving for some time. State Highway 183 sees a huge amount of traffic and most of it is passing through Irving and not stopping to pay property taxes or much sales tax. State Highway 114 use has expanded dramatically with the commercial development and apartment development that has increased the use of this corridor. It is sad that the state cannot use the existing tax collections to pay for these needed repairs. I am never one for increasing taxes, and in effect, an added toll road is a hidden increase in taxes — a regressive tax that disproportionately affects the lower-income user compared to the higher-income user. I would encourage our government to plan for the obsolescence of our roadways and realize the “true cost” of allowing additional commercial and residential development with tax abatements that do not cover the increased needs of the infrastructure. There are already plans for additional city tax-funded development along 114 that will continue to increase the usage of this roadway, which means that the road in development will be wore out faster than what is even planned today.

Sharon Phares, Irving: What I don’t understand about the plans to update State Highways 183, 114 and Loop 12 along the Irving corridor is why it took so long. There has been much talk and revealing of plans, but no action. I hope to be alive when it is completed four years from now. I do not look forward to the nightmare of rerouting and confusion from construction. My family called the improvement of 114/121 in Grapevine the “drunk driving survival course.” Irving is about to have her own qualifying track. Upon completion, tolls will be charged in varying rates in hopes of moving traffic faster and generating revenue. Does that mean we get our money back if traffic is still stalled or crawling along the gadzillion lanes?

Darrel VanDyke, Coppell: Whether it is State Highway 183, Loop 12 or any other highway that adds toll lanes, who stands to gain and who stands to lose? Here is how it starts: First the feds kick in some money and the state adds some more. Now Dallas County is sitting on a pot of money. Instead of asking normal questions like, “When can we start?,” their first question was “How can we make money on this?” Toll lanes are a misnomer if there ever was one. Certainly, the counties extract a toll for their use, but these lanes are more than that. They are so easy to drive in — just move your car over and join in the fun. Gee, look at how fast those cars can go! I bet I could be there in half the time it usually takes me. But some people will watch from the “poor” lanes as they know those new lanes for what they really are: an extra tax. Instead of doing the altruistic thing and providing roadways for all to use, Dallas has gotten greedy once again — at a cost to everyone.

Butch Murden, Irving: This highway has been needing an update for years. Funding would have been available a long time ago if we had increased the tax on gasoline a nickel a gallon. Nobody would have felt it but they definitely feel the tolls.

Vikas Deshmukh, Coppell: Am I glad they are upgrading airport freeway? It had fallen below the radar for too long. The next few years of construction mess will probably create the same nightmare that happened at the other end of the airport. But it is worth it. Some of us won’t like that all additions are going to be toll lanes. But let us face it: We live in a market-driven economy that is unwell right now. So anyone who wants special treatment pays for it. The cities will keep their money for building and subsidizing DART and other mass transit. The jury is still out about the variable toll on express lanes of 635. I, for one, find it much easier to use toll lanes which are time-based. I don’t have to tax my mind with the time and traffic combo. So I hope they keep the toll on new lanes of 183 and 114, just time based.

Wes Pyfer, Irving: Personally, I would rather TxDOT add much needed lanes to the Irving “three-mile island” section of Highway 161 between Highway 183 and Belt Line Road before they sink $850 million in adding toll lanes to other highways in Irving. TxDOT will never be able to pay for new toll lane construction until drivers that do not pay are arrested and prosecuted. Until that happens, law-abiding drivers will continue to shoulder the highway construction costs through higher and higher tolls.

Lee Swann, Irving: 183 has needed widening for a long time. Hurst, Bedford and Euless, as well as Southlake and Grapevine, have been undergoing growing pains with highway expansion. Irving has been under the gun for several years, anticipating the expansion of 183, verified by all the businesses that have been closed and demolished to make room. It will be a test of drivers’ patience and coping, but in the long run, we will benefit by the expansion. Besides, the people have never been consulted on this, so our opinions really do not carry a lot of weight; but it is good to be able to voice our thoughts here.

Sharon Baugh, Irving: I hate toll roads and toll lanes and will not drive on them. I don’t know where our tax dollars that were supposed to maintain or build new highways are actually going. It seems that the guys in Austin have instead given carte blanche to the NTTA that wants to take over all the major traffic arteries around the Dallas-Fort Worth area instead spending the tax dollars already collected as they were intended.

Michael McPhail, Irving: My dental hygienist and her husband live in Frisco and commute to Irving every work day. Last year, they spent more than $5,000 in tolls. Building toll roads is like talking through your nose: It should only be done by Yankees and other people who can’t be expected to know any better. Texans do not pay fees to drive. It holds back economic development and punishes suburbanites for not living in the central cities. The gas tax has not been raised since 1991 and cars on the road today are far more fuel efficient than they were back in the 1970s and 1980s. I’d rather pay more at the pump to build free-use Texas highways than allow the Legislature to keep turning our once-magnificent highway system into an exclusive playground for the well off.

Nell Anne Hunt, Irving: It is about time that the state got around to this. It is a shame that there will be no free lanes, but the expansion is critically needed.

Glen Fink, Irving: We are in desperate need of improvements to our roads, including additional lanes for increased traffic. The fact there will be toll lanes is unfortunate but understandable given the speed with which we need them done and the number of other improvement projects throughout the metroplex. What I would encourage or fight for is a reduced rate for residents and at plateaus of usage. We are getting to a point where it will become difficult to drive anywhere in the metroplex without paying something, and the more they can offer the consumer, the easier of a pill it will be to swallow.

Lanni Fish, Irving: I don’t think anyone is terribly excited about facing at least four years of construction involving the primary artery in our city — the one that you just about have to use in order to go anywhere. However, if you’re one of the tired and cranky people sitting on the 183 parking lot at rush hour, improvement sounds like a good idea. Like most Irvingites, I feel like the project is long overdue, though my neighbors and I may have more reason than most Irving residents to dread it. First of all, the construction on the 183/Loop 12 interchange is going to be practically in our back yards. Second, since March of 2013, folks in my neighborhood have dealt with the rebuild of the water and sewer lines on Grauwyler Road and the resurfacing of the street. It looks great, but it’s still not finished. Just about the time it is done, the construction on the interchange will begin. Still, if you want to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs. However, I am in favor of the planned rebuild of 183 and 114. It’s needed, no question about that. As for it being a toll road, clearly the money has to come from somewhere. If not from tolls, then where? More taxes? I say bring it on. Do it right, finish it on time (please), and we’ll all enjoy it one day.

Jerry McCorkle, Irving: The HOV lane is a Washington idea that doesn’t work in Texas. Does anyone know people who carpools so they can use the HOV lane? Making it an HOV/toll lane simply adds to the proliferation of toll roads that should be paid for by gas taxes. The whole metroplex is becoming a toll. Raise the gas tax and stop the toll road building.

Emma Petty, Irving: I don’t understand why we pay road taxes when we renew our license plates and then have toll roads we must pay to use. Contractors are making the money for building and collecting the fees while we, the taxpayers, are paying twice to use roads.